


Three's Company

by mindy_makru_tutu



Category: 30 Rock
Genre: F/M, Oral Sex
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-08-24
Updated: 2010-08-24
Packaged: 2019-08-27 10:49:16
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,226
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16701058
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mindy_makru_tutu/pseuds/mindy_makru_tutu
Summary: Avery attempts to shake Jack and Liz's bromance.





	Three's Company

Avery knew when she agreed to marry Jack that she’d have to wean him off his Lemon. He spent too much time with her, consulting with her, worrying about her. Especially since he was now in a committed relationship with – even if she said so herself – a very impressive woman. Even for a man of his appeal and accomplishments, she was quite the catch and never one to tolerate being overlooked or outdone. His attachment to his plain friend was odd even when he was a single bachelor in need of advice and support. Now that she was on the scene, Avery viewed their weird little bromance as null and void. She was confident, as she was in most of her abilities, that she could tactfully, gradually withdraw Jack from his bond with Liz and closer to her instead. Then their relationship would be perfect and without impediment.

Of course, she understood that she would have to be oblique in her efforts. Not that Liz would suspect much. She was not exactly the sharpest tool in the toolbox. But Jack was not a man to be openly controlled or easily manipulated. Such men had proven too dull a challenge to her in the past anyway. Jack presented more of a challenge. But he was still a man, as susceptible as most men when it came to the fairer sex. Naturally, she only had Jack’s wellbeing in mind. As his fiancee, that was her role now. And no one else’s. She also had in mind the future of their marriage and the health and happiness of their impending child. She certainly did not wish to destroy his friendship with Liz. She just needed to downgrade it a little. To something more appropriate for a man of his stature and a woman of her lack thereof. It was simply not appropriate for them to go running to each other with every little problem. It was not appropriate for them exchange sly glances as if they were sharing some private joke or to interrupt each other like they already knew what the other was about to say. It was not normal for a man and a woman to be so co-dependent. Not when the man was so eligible, so gorgeous, so…taken. And when the woman was…not.

It was partially because of all these things that Liz Lemon was not that Avery had such conviction in her ability to fracture their friendship. Not fatally – but enough to replace her as the most important woman in Jack Donaghy’s life. Which was how it was meant to be. It was only fitting. She was carrying his child after all. She was the one he’d professed his love for. She was the one sharing his bed each night. She was the one wearing the diamond ring on her finger. No matter how many might have come before her, no matter how many other love affairs Lemon had seen him through, she was the one that Jack wanted to marry now. Liz Lemon was there before her, that was all. She was his bro, his buddy, his occasional default date. But he no longer needed her to be any of those things, not now that he had her as his eventual wife. Despite her inner conviction though, constantly calling his office and having Jonathan tell her that Jack was in Liz Lemon’s office became a minor frustration. As was Jack’s propensity to start sentences with “Lemon always says” or “Lemon orders that with” or “You’ll never guess the mess that Lemon made today”. Such frequently uttered sentences often urged Avery to initiate intercourse with him. At least in bed, she had his full attention. He was all hers when he was inside her or when she had her lips wrapped around his straining sex.

She’d learnt from an early age what a powerful weapon sex could be. Particularly for a woman. She had the wits to back it up too. Sex was not the only weapon in her arsenal. But it was the quickest way to train the more traditional man. And she’d gathered from all of Jack’s sentences that started with his friend’s name that it was not a weapon Liz Lemon possessed. Or at least, she didn’t know she possessed it. But then, anyone could tell that from a single glance at her. Certainly Jack could. He was very attuned to women’s sexuality. More so than most men. She saw the way his eyes moved over other women’s bodies as they passed their table in restaurants or when they attended events together. His gaze was not necessarily desirous. It was more appraising, scrutinizing, intent. It was only his gaze that strayed though. His eyes always returned to her -- and when they did, they liked what that saw. Jack was transparent that way. It was one of the things she liked best about him. How desired she felt by him. He never tried to hide his lust. Or if he did, he wasn’t very good at it.

It wasn’t that Jack never looked at his Lemon this way. At first, she didn’t notice it. She’s sure Liz never did. But that appraising, intent gaze was still there. More furtive than when he openly turned it on other women. Yet it didn’t bother Avery so much that he did this whilst in her presence, because she’s not sure he even knew how often did. What bothered her was him hiding it. Hiding it from her. Hiding it from Liz. Even hiding it from his own awareness. Because it implied that there was something unknown, something more behind those piercing blue eyes. Something Jack wasn’t admitting aloud. After noticing the frequency of these furtive looks, Avery began to comfort herself with the thought that Jack and Liz had been friends for a long time. That if Jack had truly wanted his friend or was curious about her in that way or had some latent feelings for her despite her ugly duckling exterior, he was not the sort of man to hesitate or pine away or let such opportunities slip by. He was a man of action, a man who went after what he wanted. Like with her. He saw her, he wanted her and he did what he had to do to get her. And now he had her. In much the same way, if Jack had wanted a little taste of his Lemon, she’s sure he could have had it at any time. He could have had her. Easily. Liz probably wouldn’t have made him work for it half as hard as she had. She probably would have caved at his pathetic conference call move. She probably would’ve fallen for his least smooth line. She’d have been in his arms, in his bed before she even knew what hit her.

Considering such a scenario made Avery nervous. She began to wonder whether it was possible that Jack was lying to her or omitting something from his account of their friendship. She began to wonder whether something had happened between him and Liz. Or if something was happening. Or if it could happen. And if it hadn’t, then why it hadn’t. Somehow that seemed even more precarious a question to her. Like there was some vitally profound thing she just wasn’t seeing or didn’t understand. And she didn’t like that at all. She didn’t like not having all the facts. She made a living out of having the most up-to-date, essential facts. And no one should have more facts about her relationship and her man than she did.

For awhile, she put her hypersensitivity on the subject down to pregnancy hormones and her naturally competitive nature. But when her ongoing efforts to disengage Jack from his persistent Lemon habit failed, she began to question whether those fleeting, furtive looks she saw him shoot her way when her back was turned or when she cracked some lame joke were proof of some secret they’d decided to keep to themselves. Whether it was him remembering past times with her. Whether he was remembering her body, wrapped in sex-scented sheets. Whether he was remembering her hands and mouth doing things to him in the days before they’d even met. She wondered whether it’d had been a one night stand just because they were both drunk and single. Whether they’d been out of town on business and he’d fallen into bed with her out of boredom and curiosity. Or worse, if there had actually been a real relationship that failed due to Liz’s frigidity or Jack’s insensitivity or both. And if it left both of them secretly wondering whether they could’ve made it work if they’d only given it another shot.

The questions began to drive her mad, madder than the truth probably would. She ruled out asking Jack if there was any basis to her suspicions since that would be akin to admitting a vulnerability. She asked Liz instead. She dropped into her office one day, struck up a conversation and then sprung the question on her. Casually. Jokingly. One hand placed on her growing belly. Liz spluttered and gave her an instant denial. Avery detected no sign of deception in it. She was pretty sure Liz didn’t have it in her to lie about such a thing. And if she did, her surprise would have thrown off her lie and she’d have seen it. Afterwards, she felt marginally better. But any satisfaction she felt turned into aggravation when Jack informed her that night that Liz had shared their brief chat with him. “Lemon says,” he’d told her amusedly: “that this indicates that I am not looking after your emotional needs. She says that you obviously don’t feel secure in our love.” Avery responded by slamming the bathroom door in his smug face.

When she came out again, she was completely calm and ready to seduce. She was prepared to cut off any sentence that began with “Lemon says…” with a hot, determined kiss. Jack did not put up much of a fight. He would much rather make out with her than talk with her. Men were predictable like that. Unfortunately, midway into her seduction, his phone rang. At the beginning of their relationship, Jack would’ve just let it ring forever. But now, only six months into their entanglement, with her open mouth on his thighs and her fingernails digging into his pelvis, Jack took the call. Avery did not have to guess who was on the other end of the phone. No one else called at such an hour. And there was no one else Jack talked to as if picking up the thread of some suspended conversation. When she lifted her head and asked whether her efforts to pleasure him were interrupting them, he just covered the mouthpiece with a palm and told her that Lemon was going through yet another Lizaster. The woman was a walking Lizaster as far as Avery could tell. Jack then waved at his lap, telling her she should continue, as he wouldn’t be long.

Avery did continue. Under any other circumstances, she would have hung up the phone herself. Under any other circumstances, she’d have had him following her to the door, begging her to let him be the one to pleasure her. Instead, she swallowed her pride and did everything she could to break Jack’s focus on his friend, to make his breath hitch, to make him fumble his words. She got him hard. She got him panting. His hand started to loosen on the phone, his eyes half closing over. But when he moaned, it was the wrong name. His brain’s wires must have crossed because another woman’s name came out instead of hers. The name of the woman Avery had never considered a real threat. Not until then. The woman who wouldn’t relinquish her place in Jack’s life and affections. Or his place in hers. The woman who wasn’t even trying to compete with her. And was still winning. The woman who for some inexplicable reason possessed a hold over her man that Avery could neither fathom nor crack.

She pulled back, sitting on her heels. She watched Jack grin in delight at Liz’s grossed-out reaction on the other end of the phone. She could hear her voice rambling on at a high pitch as Jack tried to get a word in. When he did, when he told her what they were doing, what she’d interrupted, she waited for Liz to hang up the phone in disgust. But she didn’t. Liz just jabbered on and on, making Jack’s face red with laughter. Avery narrowed her eyes and feigned a smile. With any other man, she would have been livid. With any other man, she would have been insulted beyond belief. With any other man, she would have demanded he choose immediately. But then, with any other man, she would’ve known his answer. She would have been sure of his choice. For any other man, the choice would have been easy, the choice would have been her without question, without doubt. But it turned out, Jack was not like every other man. And Avery was no longer sure she was in a competition she could win.

_END._

For more of my "30 Rock" fanfic go [here](https://www.fanfiction.net/u/812100/Mindy35)


End file.
